Glass with the drinking plane not perpendicular to the axis of the container

ABSTRACT

Described herein is a glass with the drinking plane not perpendicular to the axis of the container, which can be made of any material, preferably variously coloured glass and/or crystal; it comprises a resting base, from which there departs perpendicularly or otherwise to the resting base a stem with its axis inclined or perpendicular to the base, on the top end of which the wine-containing part is located, said wine-containing part having an inclined axis, and the plane of its mouth being parallel or otherwise to the resting base itself.

A glass can have various shapes, colours and dimensions, due not only to the aesthetic imagination of the producer but also to the use for which it is designed.

The glass is a container the shape of which is, conceptually, generated by the rotation (almost always a circular rotation) about a vertical axis, of a segment of a line (profile) which moves away from the axis in the top part so as to describe the rim of the glass.

Said rotation generates a hollow solid, which can be used as a container for beverages.

The bottom part of the container is closed and has a horizontal resting surface, to which, up to now, the axis of the container has always been perpendicular.

Commonly, the resting surface can be obtained by bestowing a plane shape on the bottom part of the container, or else by adding a base thereto, with the interposition of a stem.

For reasons of stability, it is desirable for the centroid of the wineglass filled with liquid to project into the centre of the base or, at least, to fall always within the boundary of said base.

The top part of the container is open, and its rim (forming the mouth) normally lies in a horizontal plane, parallel to the resting surface and perpendicular to the axis of the container.

It is desirable, above all for wines such as champagne and dry sparkling wine to be drunk using wineglasses made of non-coloured crystal, where a slender and elongated wine-containing part is separated from its resting base by a long stem.

Such a glass is referred to as “flute”, which comes from the French “flûte”, a type of tall slender glass for champagne and similar drinks that to some extent resembles a flute on account of its elongated cylindrical shape.

In the flute, the small diameter of the container is justified both by the fact that it must limit the capacity of the container itself, given that the wines for which it is designed must be served in small amounts, and by the fact that it must limit the surface of exchange between the liquid and the air, thus limiting dispersion of the characteristic and precious bubbles (“perlage”) due to the natural fermentation of this type of wine.

The elongated shape bestows on the glass a volume sufficient to limit the formation of froth, which, at the moment of pouring of the wine is formed in large amounts although, to limit its formation, the wine is made to slip delicately along the side wall of the glass, by keeping the glass tilted to form with the axis of the bottle an obtuse, almost flat, angle (the development of froth means, in fact, a loss in “perlage”).

The stem enables the glass to be lifted up without any need to touch the wine-containing part, both to allow the drinker to admire more fully the colour and the fineness of the “perlage” of the contents and in order not to warm up with the heat of the finger tips the small portion of wine, which ought to be drunk after being kept in the melting ice at the temperature of 7-8° C.

Originally, the flute had, instead of its present and usual resting base, a spherical end, for the purpose of preventing the glass from being put down before it had been rapidly emptied of its already limited contents; this was so that the wine could be appreciated in optimal conditions, without it being impoverished in its “perlage” and warmed up by a longer permanence in the glass.

To empty the glass, it is necessary to tilt it until every point of the container is above the horizontal plane passing through the mouth of the person drinking, with which the edge of the glass is in contact.

The above operation is easier in cup-shaped or bowl-shaped glasses (where, in order for the glass to be emptied, the inclination of the generatrix of the cup of bowl with respect to the axis of the glass is subtracted from the angle of inclination of the glass) rather than in cylindrical glasses (where, since the generatrix is parallel to the axis of the container, the angle of subtraction becomes zero). It is easier with glasses with a wide mouth than with ones with a narrow mouth.

Belonging to this latter type of glasses is the flute, even though it is not the only one, where the inclination of the glass is also limited by the contact of its rim with the nose of the person drinking, who, in order to impart upon the glass the necessary inclination, is forced to incline his head backwards.

The main purpose of the invention is to eliminate the drawbacks referred to above, thus providing a solution to the operation of emptying of said type of glasses, without requiring any need for the user to incline his head backwards, with an action that is uncomfortable and unaesthetic.

The invention, as is characterized by the claims, consists in a glass where its rim (forming the mouth) lies in a plane inclined with respect to the axis of the wine-containing part (container).

The mouth of the container, if the latter is cylindrical, will no longer be circular but elliptical, and the user will rest his lips on the rim of the container in the one of the two points with horizontal tangent that is set at the higher level from the base of the glass.

The elliptical shape of the rim will enable, in the vertical plane which contains the major axis of the ellipse, a greater degree of inclination of the glass, before the latter comes into contact with its user's nose.

Furthermore, the fact that the edge of the glass has an elliptical shape, with the major axis oriented, at the moment of use, as the projection of the user's nose, not only enables the aforementioned greater inclination of the glass before this will come into contact with the nose but also enables the bouquet of the wine to reach the nostrils limiting its dispersion at the sides of the nose, where the ellipse has its minor axis.

Even though the cylindrical shape of the container is the most usual one, it is described hereinafter merely as an example of embodiment of the invention. The container may have any other shape in so far as the inclination of the plane of the mouth with respect the axis of the container bestows on the glass the same improved characteristics as those described for a cylindrical container.

The glass thus devised may be made with a base perpendicular to the axis of the wine-containing part, or else it may be possible to recover the parallelism between the plane of the mouth of the glass and its resting surface by means of appropriate and suitable inclination or conformation of the stem that joins the base to the wine-containing part.

Both of the above embodiments enable the user, by appropriately holding the glass, to keep the wine-containing part in a vertical position in order to limit the surface of contact between the air and the contents.

The second embodiment moreover enables the wine to be poured correctly even with the glass in the resting position by causing it even so to run down the internal surface of the glass, which presents with the wine-containing part already inclined with respect to the horizontal plane, in this way causing a limited amount of froth to form and consequent contained dispersion of “perlage”.

The practice of pouring champagne and sparkling wines into flûtes which are inappropriately resting on a surface is a custom that is as widespread as it is to be deprecated in so far as, by so doing, the wine falls from the bottle for the entire height of the glass and directly impinges upon the wine that has preceded it during pouring, thus mixing therewith, with the consequent formation of a very high amount of froth and a proportional loss of “perlage”.

Other characteristics will emerge more clearly from the ensuing description with reference to the attached plate of drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of the glass;

FIG. 2 is a front view of the glass;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the glass;

FIG. 4 is a side view of the glass provided with a container for the ice;

FIG. 5 is a front view of the glass illustrated in FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of the glass illustrated in FIG. 4;

FIGS. 7-9 show the glass of FIGS. 1-3 with a difference in the shape of the mouth; and

FIGS. 10-12 show the glass of FIGS. 4-6 with a difference in the shape of the mouth.

With reference to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, the glass forming the subject of the invention, which may be made of any material, preferably variously coloured glass and/or crystal, comprises a resting base 2, from which there departs, in a direction either perpendicular to the base or not, a stem 3 having an axis which is inclined or perpendicular with respect to the base, at the top end of which the wine-containing part 4 is located, having an inclined axis, with the plane 5 of its mouth 6 parallel or otherwise to the base 2.

As has been said above, the glass forming the subject of the present invention may be made even with the axis of the stem 3 perpendicular to the base 2. The axis of the wine-containing part 4 will always be inclined, and the plane 5 of the mouth 6 may be parallel or not to the base 2.

Of course, in all the solutions, for reasons of stability the centroid of the glass full of liquid must fall in any case within the boundary of its resting base.

In the solution described herein merely by way of example, there has been chosen the cylindrical shape of the container in so far as it is the most usual one, but any other shape may be used. In this case, the mouth 6 of the cylindrical container will no longer be circular but will have an elliptical shape 7, and the lips of the user will rest on the rim 8 of the container in the one of the two points with a horizontal tangent that is at a higher level from the base 2 of the glass.

The aforesaid elliptical shape 7 of the rim 5 will enable, in the vertical plane that contains the major axis of the ellipse, a larger degree of inclination of the glass 1 before this comes into contact with the nose of its user, thus preventing the need for the user to incline his head backwards.

In addition, the aforesaid elliptical shape 7 of the rim 5 with the major axis oriented at the moment of use as the protrusion of the nose of the person drinking also enables the bouquet of the wine to reach the drinker's nostrils, thus limiting dispersion of the bouquet at the sides of the nose, where the ellipse 7 has the minor axis.

Represented in FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 is a variant embodiment of the invention, which consists in the fact that the glass 1 comprises a compartment 9 for housing melting ice-cubes having the purpose of maintaining the portion of wine contained in the wine-containing part 4 at a temperature of between 7 and 8° C., thus preventing any watering-down of the contents deriving from the fact that the ice-cubes are inserted directly in the wine-containing part.

The glass of FIGS. 7-9 and 10-12 show a small difference respectively in reference to the glass shown in FIGS. 1-3 and 4-6; the difference consists in the shape of the mouth 6 that, however, maintains its elliptical shape 7 according to the invention.

The invention described above solves the problem of providing a wineglass contained in a plane that is in any case inclined with respect to its base and to its drinking plane, which lies on a plane parallel or not to the plane of the resting base.

Of course, the present invention is not limited to the arrangements described and represented herein, but rather may undergo further improvements and possible variations, particularly if these are dictated by requirements of practical use. 

1) A glass with the drinking plane not perpendicular to the axis of the container, wherein said glass comprises a resting base, a stem having an axis inclined or perpendicular with respect to the base, a wine-containing part located on said stem, said wine containing part having a mouth, said wine-containing part having an inclined axis, wherein the plane of, the mouth being parallel to the resting base. 2) The glass according to claim 1, wherein, the axis of the stem is perpendicular to the resting base, the axis of the wine-containing part is inclined, and the plane of the mouth is parallel or otherwise to the resting base. 3) The glass according to claim 2, wherein, adopting a cylindrical container, the plane of the mouth thereof will have an elliptical conformation enabling, in the vertical plane that contains the major axis of the ellipse, a wider degree of inclination of the glass. 4) The glass according to claim 2, wherein, the elliptical shape of the plane of the mouth has its major axis oriented as the projection of the nose of the person drinking, thus enabling the bouquet of the wine to reach his nostrils, limiting dispersion thereof at the sides of the nose, where the ellipse has its minor axis. 5) The glass according to claim 1, further comprising a compartment for housing melting ice-cubes in order to maintain the portion of wine contained in the wine-containing part at the temperature of 7-8° C. 